Oil Changehere's a list of tools and things you'll need to perform this procedure:
STEP ONE: Before you do anything, pick out a flat spot on your driveway. Now take your car for a drive around the neighborhood. We do this to heat the oil and make it nice and thin, so it will drain more completely from the engine block. Drive the vehicle far enough and long enough so that the temperature gauge begins to register. If you don't have a temp gauge, or if you have gauges but they're broken, turn on the heater and drive until your feet get toasty. The engine is now warm. Park it in your pre-chosen spot. STEP TWO: Turn off the engine, put the car in gear, and set the parking brake firmly. For safety, block the tires with several bricks or large rocks. Go in the house and put on your dirty clothes and cap. Come out and line up your tools. Now slide under the car and locate the oil drain plug. If there isn't enough room to slide under, you may have to jack up the car to get beneath it. Raise the car with a hydraulic pump and settle it on jackstands. CAUTION: Never get under a car held aloft only by a jack. Always use jackstands. O.K., now locate the drain plug. It should be about the closest thing to the ground, a fairly large nut with a slim washer under it. Sometimes it will even be labeled "drain plug." (Caution: Make sure you're not looking at the transmission drain plug. It's usually a larger nut. If not sure, feel the metal around it. The metal around the engine oil plug should be a lot hotter than around the trans plug. If still not sure, call a friend.) Find your socket set and pull out several sockets that look about the same size as the nut until you find one that fits over it. STEP THREE: If you have them, put on your surgical gloves to keep your hands clean. Grab the socket wrench and put the correct-sized socket on it. Place it over the nut and turn it counter-clockwise. It won't budge? Try again -- really put some force into it this time. If it still won't dislodge after several tries, locate the same sized closed-end wrench and use that instead. After you get the nut cracked, work it slightly loose with your fingers. Not too loose, though -- you don't want oil all over the place. STEP FOUR: Now take the newspaper and spread it under the car. Make sure to cover where the oil filter sticks out, because it drips after removal. Look up into the engine. See the oil filter? It looks like a miniature, upside-down version of the mountain from "Close Encounters of the Third Kind." Get the drain pan (or kitchen basin, or kid's pail) and slide it under the drain plug. Position it so the stream hits it just right (if the plug points to the side and not straight down, the oil will shoot out sideways like from a fire hydrant). Loosen the plug and set it aside. Most of the oil will drain in about two minutes. STEP FIVE: Locate the oil filter wrench. Take the socket off the socket wrench and set it next to the drain plug. Slip the oil filter wrench onto the socket wrench. You'll probably want to use the short extension, too. The oil filter wrench is like a round dog collar that only chokes in one direction. Set it up to "grab" or "choke" counterclockwise. Slip it over the oil filter and give it a tug. It shouldn't be that tight. When you feel it give, loosen it a little more, then slide the wrench off and do the rest by hand. Careful -- it has hot oil in it! Make sure your face is not under it. Remove it all the way and pour the contents into the drain pan. Set the used oil filter right-side-up on the newspaper. STEP SIX: Slide out, open the hood (if you haven't already) and remove the oil filler cap. Set it aside. This will help the oil drain a little easier. O.K., take a breather. Now, here's the deal. If you're in a hurry, you can dive right in and finish the oil change. But think about it. Drops of dirty oil are still dripping down. Personally, we like to give it a good hour to drain completely. They don't do that in the quick-lube places. If you have the time, peel off your gloves and take a break. Grab a bite, drink some soda, watch the tube. STEP SEVEN: O.K., you're back. Put your gloves on and get to work. Before you thread the new oil filter in place, dip a finger into the drain pan and coat the rubber gasket on the bottom of the filter with oil, and set it aside. This will help it seat better against the engine block. With a clean rag, wipe off the round metal circle on the engine where the oil filter fits, then thread the new filter onto the post. When it's finger-tight, either tighten it by hand if you're strong enough (it takes about one-half to three-quarters of a turn, no more: read the instructions on the filter), or flip the oil filter wrench over on the socket wrench and tighten it that way. STEP EIGHT: We recommend using a new sealing washer on the drain plug. Put the washer in place and thread the drain plug back into its hole. Scooch it up tight with the socket set, but not so tight that you can't get it off the next time (remember your struggles earlier; better to have it snug but not stripped.) Now take the oil drain pan and the empty milk bottle and the funnel. If you have a friend, have him hold the bottle while you pour the oil into it. When most of the oil has found the bottom of the bottle, seal it with the lid, then wipe out the inside of the funnel with a clean rag. (We sometimes prop the drain pan against a wall and let it continue to drip into the bottle while we do the next step. You'll need an extra funnel to do this.) STEP NINE: Set the cleaned funnel into the oil filler hole and pour in as many quarts as the manufacturer recommends. As the oil fills, begin cleaning up. Throw the newspapers in the trash and wipe down all your tools. Discard the empty oil containers in a recycling bin. After the oil is all in, twist the oil cap back on and check the dipstick for oil level, just to make sure. Take the old oil filter, place it in the Ziploc bag, and seal it. STEP TEN: Start the engine and let it idle for about five minutes, looking for leaks. Place the milk container and the Ziploc bag in a box, and set it somewhere in the car where it can't tip over. Drive to the nearest oil recycling center (as we discussed, most of the national chains, such as Econo Lube N' Tune, Jiffylube, Grease Monkey, etc., will take your old oil and filters). Take a last look underneath for leaks. That's it. Remember, changing your oil on a regular basis is the single most important thing you can do to extend the life of your car. Refer to your owner's manual for exact time periods. |
How to rotate your tiresWhy Rotate Your Tires? Front and rear tires wear differently. For example, the front tires carry more than 60% of your car’s weight; consequently, front tires wear down faster than the rear ones. Also, turning wears the front tires at different rates. In America, we generally take left turns faster than we do right turns. This puts more load on the right front tire which results in the right tire wearing faster than your left. After thousands of miles of driving, you end up with uneven tread wear.
Rotating tires equalizes these natural wear patterns by changing the positions of your tires. By rotating your tires regularly, you’ll ensure yourself a smoother and safer ride. And more importantly (for me at least) you’ll save money in the long run by extending the life of your tires. Oh, and it feels manly to flip tires around, too. How Often Should You Rotate Tires?Check your car’s owner’s manual for the recommended tire rotation schedule. Most manufacturers recommend that you rotate your tires every 5,000 miles. An easy way to remember to rotate your tires is to do it whenever you change the oil on your car. Tools NeededCar jack. Using the jack that comes with your car can work, but it isn’t recommended for rotating your tires. It’s designed to lift up your car for a short amount of time so you can quickly change a tire. The safer route is to use a hydraulic floor jack. A good floor jack will set you back about $100, but your safety is well well worth the investment. A car jack will come in handy for other maintenance jobs as well. Jack stands. You’ll need some jack stands so you can rest the car on top of them while you switch the tires out. You can buy a decent set of jack stands for about $30. If you don’t want to fork over the dough, you can jerry rig a jack stand with a cinderblock and a two by four. Just place the cinderblock under a wheel and place the two by four on top of the cinderblock to prevent scratching the bottom of your car. Lower the car jack so the car rests on the cinderblock and two by four. Wala! Instant jack stands! Rotation Pattern: Directional or Non-directional Tires? Before we start loosening those lug nuts, we need to know what pattern we’re going to use to rotate our tires. The way you rotate your tires depends on a few factors, the biggest one being whether your car has directional or non-directional tires. How to Rotate Directional Tires. Directional tires have a “one-way” tread pattern that are optimized for the direction the tires rotate on the car, so they’re specifically made for either the left or right side. The grooves are angled to optimize handling, and they also do a good job of channeling water out from under the tire on wet surfaces, reducing hydroplaning and improving wet traction. How to Rotate Non-directional Tires. The tread pattern on non-directional tires is designed in such a way that the tire can be mounted on the wheel for any direction of rotation. So you can switch which side the tires are on when you rotate them. To rotate non-directional tires, use the cross pattern. For cars with rear-wheel drive, move the front tires to the opposite sides of the rear: left-front to right-rear and right-front to left-rear. The rear tires are moved straight forward. On vehicles with front-wheel drive, just do the opposite. Move the rear tires to the opposite sides of the front and move the front tires straight back. Rotate the Spare In?Some old car maintenance guides recommend that drivers rotate their spare tire into use in order to give one of the tires a much needed break. The problem with this advice is that the vast majority of modern spare tires aren’t designed for extended driving. They’re often smaller and feature a lighter-weight construction and shallower tread depth. They’re designed to simply get you to a shop to fix the original tire. That’s it. Some cars still come equipped with full-size matching spare tires. Off road vehicles and many SUVs usually have them. If you have a car that has a matching spare tire, it isn’t a bad idea to rotate it into use. How to Rotate Your Tires Time needed: 20 minutes. 1. Engage parking break. Just for your safety. 2. Loosen the lug nuts on all your wheels. You don’t want to take them completely off yet. Loosening them now will make unscrewing them when the car is elevated much easier. 3. Lift up one wheel with car jack and place jack stand underneath it. If you just have one or two jack stands (or cinder blocks) you’ll need to do a bit of mental work before you start jacking so you know how you’re going to proceed with lowering and raising your car. Because you have fewer stands, you’ll also spend more time lowering and raising your car in order to switch them out. Despite the extra effort, you still won’t spend much more than 20 minutes on the job. I’ve seen some people place their car on all four jack stands. It’s not exactly the safest thing to do, but it will definitely help you get the job done faster because you don’t have to switch out jack stands. 4. Remove the tires and rotate them according to the appropriate pattern for your type of tires. When you place a tire back onto the wheel mount, screw the lug nuts on by hand as much as you can. 5. Lower the car from the jack stands. Take the lug wrench and tighten the nuts even more. It’s best to work the lug nuts diagonally from one to another. It looks like a star pattern. This ensures even tightening. Tightening the lug nuts unevenly can warp the brake rotor. Star pattern when tightening lug nuts That’s it! Now just mark down the mileage when you rotated your tires and remember to do it again in another 5,000 miles. |